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HONG KONG — Whether Edward Snowden misjudged the odds of extradition from Hong Kong before revealing his identity here as the man who exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs may be irrelevant.

The National Security Agency contractor may have chosen to surface in the city for the same reason so many companies from the U.S. and other countries choose to use it for a regional base: It's the best gateway to much of the world's largest continent.

That could be what Hong Kong officials have in mind for Snowden. "It's actually in his best interest to leave Hong Kong,'' Regina Ip, a member both of the city's legislature and cabinet, told reporters Monday.

The story was among the top headlines in some Hong Kong news media. "CIA snitch holed up in HK," read the headline in The Standard, the largest circulation English language daily newspaper in Hong Kong.

Other news media, such as Chinese broadcaster TVB, wondered where Snowden would seek asylum.

Leaving for somewhere else would be easy for Snowden. Hong Kong is connected to 180 cities in dozens of countries by some 850 flights a day. As the city's investment development agency says on its marketing web site, "Easy and efficient regional travel is key to Hong Kong's success as a regional centre." Many of these countries have loose entry requirements for Americans.

Perhaps the easiest option for Snowden to lay low inexpensively would be the Philippines, with more than 25 flights a day to various airports and some of the least expensive travel costs around. Snowden would get a boost from a fall in the Philippine peso Tuesday to its lowest level against the dollar in a year, and he could choose to head to any of some 2,000 inhabited islands.

But really Snowden would be spoiled for choice, with Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia and Burma among the options of places with nonstop flights from Hong Kong and many remote corners to get lost.

Snowden could also head to mainland China, especially if he used his time in Hong Kong to sort out a visa before he went public. The visa would have cost him as much as a plane ticket to a place like Taipei or Manila but he could avoid flying and travel by bus, train or ferry. It might, however, be a difficult place for him to stay out of the limelight as Beijing would almost certainly take note of his entry and keep a close eye on him. Hotels across the country are required to report to police on every foreign guest.

Or he could head north to Russia, also served from Hong Kong. Media reports there on Tuesday quoted President Vladimir Putin's press secretary saying Snowden would be considered for asylum. "If we receive such a request, we will consider it," said Dmitry Peskov.

Snowden may of course have just decided to stay in Hong Kong a while longer after he checked out of the Mira on hotel on Monday since he can stay another two months as an American tourist. One of the reporters from the Guardian newspaper who arranged with Snowden to meet here for interviews told the Associated Press that he had been contacted by "countless people" offering to pay for "anything [Snowden] might need."